On Saturday, March 24, students and other concerned citizens will be taking to the streets in Santa Barbara for the March for our Lives movement to protest for better gun control laws.

Marchers will meet in De La Guerra Plaza at 10 a.m. where they can register to vote if they have not, and speakers, like Senator Hannah Beth Jackson and Associated Student Governments’ Krystle Farmer, will begin speaking at 11 a.m.  

Cristian Walk, a former ASG commissioner of academics, said there are a lot of specific pieces of legislation that he hopes the march will address such as the Centers for Disease Control not being able to use funds to study gun violence, raising the age to buy a gun to 21, the bump stock ban, and the assault weapons ban.

“We feel like when people say comprehensive gun control, that’s what they mean,” said Walk.

While Walk has taken over most of the logistical aspects of the event, the march was initiated by SBCC Chemistry Chair Dr. Raeanne Napoleon.

Napoleon spearheaded this event by creating a Facebook page and contacting potential speakers, but said she knew early on that because this was a student led movement, encouraging student outreach was key.

The marches across the US for the most part were a response to the Parkland, Florida shooting, but Rachel Ng, a UCSB student helping with the organization of this event, said that this march will be in response to multiple shootings including the Las Vegas and Isla Vista shooting.

“Unfortunately, there’s so many events that we’re trying to highlight as much as we can to show how much of an issue it is,” said Ng.

Walk said that pushing for change is an important next step.

“I’ve been telling a lot of people this it’s all about re energizing our portion, our local area, but this is gonna be a long term movement,” said Walk. “This is our point in time to really push our politicians in the direction of at least getting something done right now, and then continuing the pressure.”